The Conroe865PE thread... for AGP users... stock and mod

[b1gt1m]

ROFL!!! I've just read thru the posts again from top to bottom - it's just sunk in that the RAM divider is set to 3/2 and to get it upto 1/1 im gonna have to speed up the bus to 300 instead of 266... I'll try it and set the RAM to 2.5 2 4 4 8. Here we go...

[b1gt1m]

Its alive ALIVE!! Just dropped the CPU down to 6 an windows talking, just successfully booted for the first time! Gonna run some tests to see what speed things are running at (CPUZ) will keep you posted.

[b1gt1m]

Ok people, thanx to your wonderful knowledge and experience, I'm now typing this on the Conroe865PE/C2Q6600 Build!!!! Yea that's right I've cracked it - it was the RAM... or the speed of it to be precise. I discovered that because of the way the BIOS handles the clock speeds, the RAM as it turns out was getting OC'd to within an inch of it's poor life!! So, after some calculations, I've sussed out the following, Conroe865PE boards DO NOT like CL3 RAM!!! CL2 or CL2.5 is fine - CL3 you get all sorts of problems, which is why I'm now half bald!!! Anyway here are some screen shots for you lovely folks! I declare this machine conquered - JOB DONE!! :rockou t:

[cdawall]

Holy old thread...

[TRWOV]

Nice to see you got it running. Welcome to the club

[b1gt1m]

Hiya guys, first of all, let me say a huge THANKYOU to you all who've helped me and got me through this build. Without your knowledge and expertise, there is absolutely NO WAY that I'd be typing this message to you all. I'm so much more wiser and informed regarding building now - and to think that I told myself I knew enough - you never stop learning ever! OK well, HALLELUJAH - I've actually nailed it down now to a fine point of what was going wrong with the system all this time - it was an incompatible memory stick. As you can see from the screen shot, I'm now using a couple of 1Gb DIMMS that are both CL/CAS 2.5 and are locked down at 3 3 7. I have 4 DIMMS (4Gb) to use but 1 of them is ONLY CL/CAS 3 and NO LESS! This caused all sorts of errors and instability because ConRoe865 Boards will ONLY USE CL/CAS 2 or 2.5 DIMMS and I was using the CL3 DIMM all the time until I had the idea I was missing something. So... I read the entire thread again and thats when it hit me! Charlib wrote "When installing the q6600, the bios sets automatically the ratio fsb/memory to 3/2. Then the memory works at 177,77mhz only, for the standard fsb of 266mhz." Which straight away triggered my thinking about the RAM being OC'd way too much then Hat wrote "Since you said it doesn't work at all in dual channel and halfass works in single channel I'm thinking it could be a memory controller issue (board) most likely... checking your RAM settings is a longshot, but worth a try." RAM settings absolutely right! Then m1dg3t made me click with the quote "3/3/3/9 is not an actual timing option, 3/3/3/8 is. Most standard ddr400 RAM was specced @ 200Mhz 3/4/4/8." Then I remembered reading in the ASRock ConRoe865PE Manual that the board only likes CL2.5 or CL2 RAM ESPECIALLY WHEN RUNNING AT 1066!!! So, the upshot of all this is now that I know which DIMMS can run at CL2.5 (3 out of 4 DIMMS as it turns out) - I've put 2 - 1Gb DDR400 CL2.5 DIMMS onto the board which are in slots 1 and 3. I've set the FSB at 250 which gives me the the RAM running at DDR333 in DUAL CHANNEL MODE at stock LOW voltage on everything. Please take a look at my screen shot. The last word on this for me is that I'm getting a matched set of
OCZ Platinum PC3200 2 3 2 5 RAM which will run upto speeds in excess of DDR550 CL2.5! It's been fun guys, and I will keep you posted on the RAM when I get it. keep the faith! :rockou t::ro ckout:

[b1gt1m]

Allo! Just a quick update for ya, I've just ordered a matched pair of
'OCZ PC3200 1024MB EL DUAL CHANNEL 2 3 2 5 DIMMS'! They're CL2 at DDR400, so overclocking is absolutely on the table with these babies!!!

[b1gt1m]

Allo! This will be my final update for a while. OK so, after reading and searching for days on end for a BIOS Hack that'll run the divider at 1:1 or even 5:4 guess what - I FOUND IT! And took delivery of 2x OCZ 1Gb Platinum DDR400 2 3 2 5 Sticks!!! So I've install em and I'm as happy as can be! My PC is running smooth as a babies behind and fast too - stable a granite. I'm happy and for those who want it, here's that BIOS mod too. It's 1.50 modded to run at 5:4 divider. The attached file IS NOT A TXT FILE - ITS THE BIOS UPD - RENAME IT FROM TXT to ROM!!! All the best.

[b1gt1m]

Here's my PC now! HAPPY!!!!!

[TRWOV]

Originally Posted by b1gt1m

Allo! This will be my final update for a while. OK so, after reading and searching for days on end for a BIOS Hack that'll run the divider at 1:1 or even 5:4 guess what - I FOUND IT! And took delivery of 2x OCZ 1Gb Platinum DDR400 2 3 2 5 Sticks!!! So I've install em and I'm as happy as can be! My PC is running smooth as a babies behind and fast too - stable a granite. I'm happy and for those who want it, here's that BIOS mod too. It's 1.50 modded to run at 5:4 divider. The attached file IS NOT A TXT FILE - ITS THE BIOS UPD - RENAME IT FROM TXT to ROM!!! All the best.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!! :resp ect:: respect::respe ct:

Where did you find it? I must have spent like a month looking for it. Too bad it's the 1.50 bios but it supports my CPU so it should be alright. Testing.

[b1gt1m]

Where did I find it!? If I told you, you'd never believe it... ahh what the hell - in an ex DARPA server! I'm still confused tho - I tried the BIOS yesterday an as shown in the screenshot, the system ran ok - then today I turned it on, it booted then everything I tried to run started to crash... I'm a little confused I must say again - so reverted back to BIOS 1.72 running with 3:2 divider - clocked up the FSB to 300 so the CPU is running at 2.7 instead of 2.4 and the RAM is running at DDR400 and I'm Still having problems... I'm getting a headache!

[TRWOV]

Maybe you could disable Intel SpeedStep and see if that helps?? Bios 1.60 had some bugfixes for it and the bios you found is 1.50.

[b1gt1m]

Yeah I figured that one so I've gone back to using 1.70 and setting the FSB to 300 so I get DDR400 (199.8) - at least it's stable... I'm not to sure what to make of 1.71 and 1.72 - they seem to be identical...

[Completely Bonkers]

If you are brave, get an original 1.50 ROM, compare it to the hacked 1.50. Transfer those same edits to the newer 1.72

This is some work to achieve using a BIOS editor etc. But I'm sure quite do-able

[b1gt1m]

hmmmmm... do-able I'll have a go!

[b1gt1m]

Allo its been a while huh? Well I went as far as I could with ConRoe865PE-I realised this when I started to actually get into BIOS editing!? Nah not really...! So, I've just got a ASRock 4CoreDual SATA2 Rev 2.00 MainBoard, an Intel Q6600 (G0) and a matched set of OCZ Platinum 2Gb RAM (2x PC3200 1Gb 2 3 2 5) with a Sapphire HD3850 AGP card and a 400Gb IBM SATA2 HDD. I built the machine turned it on and it POST'd first time, so I flashed the BIOS to 2.20A thanx to a link off this site to PC-TRIEBER. Booted again and tried to run a W7 install a few times and failed as the Windows Setup Progam keeps crashing at expanding files saying a "File is Missing" which I know it's not and the HDD is 100%. I went back into the BIOS and UNDERCLOCKED the CPU to 250 FSB, left the RAM at DDR200 and locked up the AGP/PCI bus to 66 - auto voltages on everything, and I got it to boot of a CD into MINI W7 which is what im running now. I daren't try an install W7 onto the HDD in case of drive errors cos of the problem with the system clocks. Another thing, I noticed the System Time keeps jumping forward 3/4 hrs!!! It currently says in the task bar that it's 08:15am when it is in fact 4am!? And thats after I've performed a time update! Please help, I've been building systems since the days of DOS 2 and 286's and I'll be damned if I know whats going on, I thought it might be the RAM but as I've 2 sets of Dual Channel OCZ RAM and they're both 100% - I know the RAMS tip-top.

[TRWOV]

I don't have experience with that board but I think that Jstn7477 has (or had) one. _JP_ too. You might want to give them a shout.

[Bo$$]

Originally Posted by b1gt1m

Allo its been a while huh? Well I went as far as I could with ConRoe865PE-I realised this when I started to actually get into BIOS editing!? Nah not really...! So, I've just got a ASRock 4CoreDual SATA2 Rev 2.00 MainBoard, an Intel Q6600 (G0) and a matched set of OCZ Platinum 2Gb RAM (2x PC3200 1Gb 2 3 2 5) with a Sapphire HD3850 AGP card and a 400Gb IBM SATA2 HDD. I built the machine turned it on and it POST'd first time, so I flashed the BIOS to 2.20A thanx to a link off this site to PC-TRIEBER. Booted again and tried to run a W7 install a few times and failed as the Windows Setup Progam keeps crashing at expanding files saying a "File is Missing" which I know it's not and the HDD is 100%. I went back into the BIOS and UNDERCLOCKED the CPU to 250 FSB, left the RAM at DDR200 and locked up the AGP/PCI bus to 66 - auto voltages on everything, and I got it to boot of a CD into MINI W7 which is what im running now. I daren't try an install W7 onto the HDD in case of drive errors cos of the problem with the system clocks. Another thing, I noticed the System Time keeps jumping forward 3/4 hrs!!! It currently says in the task bar that it's 08:15am when it is in fact 4am!? And thats after I've performed a time update! Please help, I've been building systems since the days of DOS 2 and 286's and I'll be damned if I know whats going on, I thought it might be the RAM but as I've 2 sets of Dual Channel OCZ RAM and they're both 100% - I know the RAMS tip-top.

Swap out the Cmos battery, maybe check another CD drive!

loosen timings on the ram!

[b1gt1m]

Well, I seemed to have cured the problem - I dropped the clock ratio from x9 to x8 - an now it runs like a dream!!!? The CPU is a Q6600 (G0) an is supposed to run at x9 ratio as standard!? Weird? Any thoughts...

[eidairaman1]

Originally Posted by b1gt1m

Well, I seemed to have cured the problem - I dropped the clock ratio from x9 to x8 - an now it runs like a dream!!!? The CPU is a Q6600 (G0) an is supposed to run at x9 ratio as standard!? Weird? Any thoughts...

what ratio, are you talking about the Multiplier which determines the CPUs operational state

aka FSB x Multiplier Number? or are you talking about a memory divisor?

[Bo$$]

Originally Posted by b1gt1m

Well, I seemed to have cured the problem - I dropped the clock ratio from x9 to x8 - an now it runs like a dream!!!? The CPU is a Q6600 (G0) an is supposed to run at x9 ratio as standard!? Weird? Any thoughts...

i think maybe the power circuitry was having a hard time with that CPU! great that it's all good

[b1gt1m]

Ooh sorry yea the CPU Multiplier... its set at 8x....

[b1gt1m]

ROFL!!! I've just discovered that I've made an error with my BIOS settings - I left the Thermal Throttling function OFF in the BIOS - since I've turned it on and set the FSB to AUTO - Multiplier to x9 and memory to DDR400 with low voltage settings on all - it's as stable as a rock and runs fine... I AM A DOUGHNUT!!!! ROFL!!!! I'm still gonna try an OC it tho... Muwahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!! ;-)

[TRWOV]

mmm... so it throttles at stock speeds? You might need a better heatsink. What are you using?

[ashoka]

Originally Posted by TRWOV

mmm... so it throttles at stock speeds? You might need a better heatsink. What are you using?

TRWOV

I want Asrock ConRoe 865PE mobo for my Pentium D and DDR and AGP card. where to get?
I am from India. Any Mobo for Pentium D will do but this is best not wasting my existing
memory and DVD drive...